The importance of reaching out
The columnist not only tried to capture the goodwill of those who wielded importance in the Portuguese-Brazilian literary milieu, but also mentioned and even generously reviewed authors who were relatively unknown,
1 Here is a brief list of young writers to whom she paid tribute: Oscar Lopes, Goulart de Andrade, Hermes Fontes, Paulo Brandão, Domingos Barbosa, Veiga Miranda, and Vieira da Silva. either because they were so young or because their work was published far from Rio de Janeiro. Interested in a favourable reference from an already well-known columnist, authors sent her autographed copies along with friendly correspondence. In early 1907, Carmen Dolores said that two publications had arrived in her hands accompanied by ‘the most mellifluous and amiable phrases, indirectly asking for references’. In her view, she had made the requested references in a ‘flattering’ manner, but the reaction of the authors had been surprising:
[I]t would seem that I failed to sugarcoat them enough, and from one the reply came late and very dry, in an official tone, entirely unlike the dulcet note of the request, and from the other one, ah! my friends! not a single word of simple courtesy.
2 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 13 Jan. 1907, p. 1.In July 1909, Carmen Dolores acclaimed the young Amada O’Donnell, who was on a lecturing visit to Rio de Janeiro, and whom she called a ‘distinguished Spanish writer’, assuring the readers that O’Donnell was ‘as intelligent as she was energetic’ and ‘endowed with high culture’. As if these compliments did not suffice, she recommended her to the Rio de Janeiro press, asking them to offer her ‘support and advice’, and suggested to the conductor Elpídio Pereira, who at the time was organising literary-musical sessions at the Associação dos Empregados de Comércio, that he include her in one of those well-attended sessions.
3 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 25 July 1909, p. 1. The chronicler would end up regretting showing so much generosity ….
Dolores said the young lecturer had caused her an ‘undeserved bitter taste’, despite the affection with which the chronicler had treated her:
One day, a certain Chilean or Argentinian writer called Amada O’Donnell came into my house, recommended by someone whom I consider very worthy, and I granted her the warm Brazilian welcome that everyone knows. I introduced her to my family, had her sit at my table, wrote about her several times and recommended her to João do Rio, whose kindness I called upon, Gastão Bousquet and Lord knows how many other prominent journalists. I was so good to her, that she kissed my hand several times – perhaps to bite it later.
4 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 12 Dec. 1909, p. 1.The young lady wanted Carmen Dolores to get her venues for her public speeches, but the chronicler explained that she did not even do that for herself and, at that particular moment, she was short of time and ill. The justification did not satisfy the lecturer, who tried to take advantage of the good reception she had received, according to Carmen Dolores’ account: ‘Then Miss O’Donnell began to invade my house, insistent, stealing my working hours, and I had to defend myself. I was already quite ill, and even ended up taking refuge at the hospital’.
5 In November 1909, Carmen Dolores underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour. During her convalescence, she was visited by Júlia Lopes de Almeida.,6 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 12 Dec. 1909, p. 1. The height of the ingratitude came when the young woman was leaving Rio de Janeiro:
[W]hen leaving on the steamboat
Sírio for Chile, this woman sent me an insulting letter as a farewell, in which she called me miserable, a coward, invoked her qualities as a Protestant writer, as if I had no Protestants in my family, and even threatened to drive a dagger through my chest!
7 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 12 Dec. 1909, p. 1.The visiting lecturer had thus reacted to some unflattering references to her in a chronicle by Carmen Dolores, whereas the latter thought there had been a misunderstanding based on general comments. O’Donnell had worn the cap that fitted …. On 5 December, Carmen Dolores published a chronicle in Correio da Manhã about ‘Os farsistas’ (‘The phonies’). In this text she profiled men and women who, like Tartuffe, would pretend to be something they were not. One such type of person she described as the fake woman writer, possibly nodding to O’Donnell, who had tried to use Carmen Dolores as an agent:
Barely writing a greeting or an invitation on a calling card, she entertains the obsession of being a literary scholar, a psychologist, an entity of superior essence; and she spends her life devising phrases, discussing authors she has never even read, in an affected fervour of ideas and pretensions. Skilled in the art of intrigue and wickedness, she gives the impression of a higher woman, whose intelligence does not allow her to descend to lower matters.
8 Carmen Dolores, ‘Os farsistas’, Correio da Manhã, 5 Dec. 1909, p. 1.Despite the occasional events of discourtesy, rudeness, and ingratitude, Carmen Dolores did not interrupt this spontaneous effort of disseminating writers’ names, which she considered a kind of duty. In her final chronicle, published a few days before her death, when she was extremely fatigued and tortured by excruciating pain, she made a humble apology:
I have books and more books on my desk, papers, all sorts of works – some old, some new – and I really don’t know how to deal with them all, when I’m forbidden from exerting any great effort at the moment. May the authors forgive me for this forced absence and accept my thanks for the lines and generous dedications they have bestowed on me.
9 Carmen Dolores, ‘A semana’, O País, 14 Aug. 1910, p. 1.Despite the possibility of acts of generosity being paid back with ingratitude, as O’Donnell’s reactions and the silence of other neophytes showed, Carmen Dolores likely intended to gain far-reaching advantages from the apparently disinterested dissemination of obscure authors. However, without further reflection, it was difficult to understand the attitudes of the virile writer that set her on a collision course with some of the big names of her time. For example, she clashed with Medeiros e Albuquerque, a founding member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a federal deputy from Pernambuco, director-general of public education in Rio de Janeiro, and the chief editor of the evening newspaper A Notícia (Rio de Janeiro, 1894–1998).